[linux-audio-user] same kernel and big differences between mandrake and debian?

[tim hall]

Last Monday 20 September 2004 22:53, Eric Dantan Rzewnicki was like:
> On Mon, Sep 20, 2004 at 07:55:01PM +0200, rico wrote:
> > Le lundi 20 Septembre 2004 19:39, Austin a ?crit?:
> > > On Mon, 2004-09-20 at 13:10 +0200, rico wrote:
> > > > How comes there is such a difference between two system that uses the
> > > > same kernel and config?
> > > > Where should i look since the kernel and modules are the same (are
> > > > they?)?
> > >
> > > By using the "stock" kernel, so you mean you compiled it from vanilla,
> > > or do you mean the standard kernel included with each distro.
> > > If the latter, I assure you that the Mandrakelinux and Debian kernels
> > > will be VERY different.  We have a few hundred patches in our kernel.
> > > If you're compiling from vanilla, there shouldn't be such a defference.
> > > Maybe different alsa or glibc version?
> >
> > Sorry for the imprecision, both system use the vanilla kernel (preemption
> > disabled) from kernel.org, both are compiled for an amd processor with
> > the same .config file.
> > The difference is such that  on debian it's just impossible to use band
> > in a box with wine whereas it works great on mandrake!
> >
> > > Keep in mind that Mandrakelinux is i586 optimized, except glibc which
> > > is i686 optimized.  Debian is only i386 AFAIK.
> > > Austin

Eh? Whatareyoutalkingabout?
I don't know much about kernels, I have never rolled my own, partly because 
I've never felt I needed to. I've used Debian/...AGNULA/DeMuDi multimedia 
kernels for the past two years with no problems. However I've not tried this 
exact combination of software with it. All Debian kernels come with -386 -586 
-686 -k7 etc variants. Does that not count as optimised in the way Austin 
means?
--Genuine question btw---

> > Maybe this is the point but i don't know how to solve it.
> > I know that the glibc version differ between mandrake and debian i'll
> > investigate that.
> > I wonder if there is a place somwhere in mandrake's distro, where they
> > tweaked something to better the sound system ...(alsa option, IRQ
> > fiddling, or something...)
>
> Since you already have debian sarge installed you might consider adding
> packages from Demudi/Agnula: http://demudi.org/

> At the very least you should be able to use their kernel .debs. I'm not
> sure because I haven't used demudi yet myself, but it may be as simple
> as adding a demudi line to your /etc/apt/sources.list and apt-get
> install'ing the appropriate package(s).

It is. Use the Agnula multimedia kernels for music work.
Information here:
http://wiki.agnula.org/wiki/wiki.phtml?title=DeMuDi-Testing
http://www.agnula.org/download/demudi/1.2.0-FAQ

For the record, I have nothing against Mandrake, of course. Debian suits my 
needs better. It's a more 'purist' distro and adheres much more strictly to 
GNU / Free Software / GPL guidelines than other distros. For this reason it 
may not interface so willingly with proprietary soft/hardware. If your focus 
is music, I'd recommend installing AGNULA/DeMuDi it's much less hassle than 
trying to figure why vanilla Debian won't do the things you want. Whether it 
handles Band-in-a-box via Wine any better I honestly have no idea.

I suspect it will take just as much work whichever way you go about it.

cheers

tim hall